The Sandman (Neil Gaiman comic) gets a Netflix pilot

[Mister Six]

Per The Hollywood Reporter and its incredibly irritating slang:

'Sandman' TV Series From Neil Gaiman, David Goyer — With Huge Price Tag — a Go at Netflix

The drama, from Warner Bros. TV, landed at the streamer with what sources describe as a massive financial commitment and DC Entertainment's most-expensive TV foray ever.
Neil Gaiman's beloved Vertigo comic Sandman is finally coming to the screen.

More than three years after New Line's failed attempt to turn the graphic novel into a feature film, Netflix has signed what sources describe as a massive financial deal with Warner Bros. Television to adapt the best-seller into a live-action TV series. Sources familiar with the deal note that it is the most expensive TV series that DC Entertainment has ever done.

Allan Heinberg (Wonder Woman, ABC's The Catch, Grey's Anatomy) is set to write and serve as showrunner on the straight-to-series drama. Gaiman, who created the ongoing monthly comic, will exec produce alongside David Goyer. Gaiman and Goyer were both attached to New Line's most recent attempts to adapt Sandman for the big screen.

Netflix and Warners declined comment as a formal deal has not yet closed. An episode count was not immediately available.

The Netflix take represents the first Sandman TV series after numerous efforts to adapt Gaiman's horror, fantasy and mythology tale about Morpheus, the Lord of Dreams, and the Endless, the powerful group of siblings that includes Destiny, Death, Destruction, Despair, Desire and Delirium (as well as Dream).

Attempts to turn Sandman into a feature film franchise started in the 1990s with Warner Bros. — the parent company of Vertigo, the former imprint of DC Comics. The film went through multiple incarnations and writers in the 1990s and early 2000s and eventually toiled away in development purgatory. Gaiman (whose work has been adapted for TV with Starz's American Gods, Amazon's Good Omens) announced in late 2013 that he was teaming with Joseph Gordon-Levitt for a feature film that wound up being set up at Warner Bros.-owned New Line. Gordon-Levitt was set to star and direct before bailing on the film following creative differences with the studio in March 2016. Eric Heisserer, the last screenwriter attached to New Line's Sandman, said in November 2016 that he was no longer attached to the film.

"I ... came to the conclusion that the best version of this property exists as an HBO series or limited series, not as a feature film, not even as a trilogy," Heisserer told iO9 in November 2016. "The structure of the feature film really doesn't mesh with this. So I went back and said here's the work that I've done. This isn't where it should be. It needs to go to TV."

Sources say Warners, which controls the IP, took the Sandman TV pitch to multiple outlets, including corporate sibling HBO. The premium cable network did not make a play for the series given the massive price tag attached (and likely number of other big world shows in the works) and Netflix snapped it up as the streamer continues to make an active play for massive IP that could be turned into subscriber-friendly franchises a la Amazon's Lord of the Rings and HBO's Game of Thrones.

Since parting ways with Marvel, Netflix has aggressively pursued big-name IP — like Magic: The Gathering, The Chronicles of Narnia and the works of Roald Dahl — as the streamer courts new subscribers with exclusive new takes on beloved franchises.

The Sandman deal will provide a financial windfall to Warners, which is in final negotiations for a new film and TV pact with J.J. Abrams that could be worth north of $500 million. Sources note that the studio opted to sell it to a third party in a bid to bring additional revenue to the company rather than placing it at its forthcoming streaming service. The studio will next look to re-sign prolific comedy producer Chuck Lorre as the Big Bang Theory co-creator's current deal expires in 2020.

Heinberg is repped by Hansen Jacobson; Goyer, whose TV credits include Syfy's Krypton and NBC's Constantine (both based on DC characters), is with WME and Bloom Hergott; Gaiman is with CAA.

[chveik]

oh dear. this is a terrible idea. the Endless are a pure comics creation, it can't possibly work on a screen.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Allan Heinberg (Wonder Woman, ABC's The Catch, Grey's Anatomy) is set to write and serve as showrunner on the straight-to-series drama. Gaiman, who created the ongoing monthly comic, will exec produce alongside David Goyer. Gaiman and Goyer were both attached to New Line's most recent attempts to adapt Sandman for the big screen.

Jesus, his writing cv is pretty dodgy stuff, with The OC, The Catch, Sex and the City and Grey's Anatomy being the shows he's written for the most. I guess he got the job because of Wonder Woman but there's nothing on his imdb page which suggests he'll produce anything that interesting in the slightest.

[Mister Six]

I dunno, Jeremy Carver's resume wasn't that impressive either and Doom Patrol turned out great. I'm staying positive.

oh dear. this is a terrible idea. the Endless are a pure comics creation, it can't possibly work on a screen.

There was a great movie script doing the rounds about 15(!) years back that perfectly captured the tone of the comic, and deftly merged The Doll's House, with Preludes and Nocturnes, actually improving on them both. Had Gaiman's blessing, too. So it absolutely can be done, and done well.

Also don't see how The Endless are "pure comics" and anathema to a screen adaptation - they're just a bunch of goths and a ginner.

[Chuck Armstrong]

Allan Heinberg (Wonder Woman, ABC's The Catch, Grey's Anatomy) is set to write and serve as showrunner on the straight-to-series drama.

This isn't inspiring me with confidence. Sandman is crying out for an ambitious Fuller-like showrunner, albeit one more reliable and focused (and who knows how to work within a budget).

I'm a little concerned about Goyer being involved too, even if it's as an executive producer. Hopefully he's just getting a residual check because he previously tried to adapt it.

[mothman]

I've read the full saga, but at the end of it all and to this day I don't really know what it was about.

[Pranet]

I've read the full saga, but at the end of it all and to this day I don't really know what it was about.

A load of magic goths faffing around.

[Gulftastic]

The Hob Gadling stuff will make a good episode.

[mothman]

A load of magic goths faffing around.

Quite so. But was there a central plot? I was none the wiser. Then just recently I read the Lucifer spin-off which was even less coherent.

[Gulftastic]

Quite so. But was there a central plot? I was none the wiser. Then just recently I read the Lucifer spin-off which was even less coherent.

It's been interminable. I've just dropped it from my standing order.

'Books Of Magic' is OK though.

[Mister Six]

Sandman is deliberately diffuse and meandering - LIKE A DREAM!!!!NN - but there is a general overarching plot that Gaiman summed up as something like: The Lord of Dreams discovers he must change or die, and makes a choice.

Re: Lucifer, you need to read the Mike Carey version, which is a self-contained 75-ish issue run. Don't read the revivals, of which I think there have been two, both shite. That has a much stronger central arc for Lucifer himself, although it does the same thing as Sandman by having arcs and issues dedicated to the supporting cast members and others, as a way to show how his actions affect the mortals around him. Not sure why this is confusing to some people, but hey ho.

[Alberon]

It's been interminable. I've just dropped it from my standing order.

'Books Of Magic' is OK though.

There was a new Lucifer comic series, wasn't there? Not read it myself.

I think the reference was to the original run of Lucifer which is bloody brilliant.

EDIT: Forget it, already covered immediately above.

[mothman]

Sandman is deliberately diffuse and meandering - LIKE A DREAM!!!!NN - but there is a general overarching plot that Gaiman summed up as something like: The Lord of Dreams discovers he must change or die, and makes a choice.

Re: Lucifer, you need to read the Mike Carey version, which is a self-contained 75-ish issue run. Don't read the revivals, of which I think there have been two, both shite. That has a much stronger central arc for Lucifer himself, although it does the same thing as Sandman by having arcs and issues dedicated to the supporting cast members and others, as a way to show how his actions affect the mortals around him. Not sure why this is confusing to some people, but hey ho.

Yeah, there were about 70-odd issues, and I really struggled. Not my thing I guess. "Interminable" is a good way to put it.

I'll definitely re-read Sandman again at some point but Lucifer, nooooo...

Was one of the revivals a whole other continuity where he runs a TV station?

[Mister Six]

Ah, fair enough. Horses for courses.

The TV network, I think you're thinking of Garth Ennis's Chronicles of Wormwood from Avatar.

The first Lucifer comic had him and Gabriel going off to find God's killer, and came about with the launch of the TV show. The other one is more recent and I'll be honest, I haven't read it. But I don't know anyone who liked it.

[mothman]

Yeah, Ennis, Wormwood. That was it.

[Mister Six]

There's been an update to the cast list, including Jenna Coleman (!?) as Johanna Constantine, and Kirby Howell-Baptiste (who must have the best agent in the world, because she's in everything) as Death.

Previously announced cast:



Newly announced cast:



I'm generally pretty woke, but pronouns + Netflix makes me worried this might be a bit pandering and unbearable.

Also black Death seems wrong. Her pasty white goth Valley Girl vibe is iconic. Black Morpheus wouldn't faze me, but black Death? C'monnn.

EDIT: per Gaiman:

JOHANNA CONSTANTINE – Eighteenth Century occult adventuress, John Constantine's great-great-great grandmother. This Sandman character became so popular that she even had her own spin-off series. I created her to fill the role that John Constantine does in the past. When we broke down the first season, given that we knew that we would be encountering Johanna in the past, we wondered what would happen if we met a version of her in the present as well. We tried it and the script was sparkier, feistier, and in some ways even more fun. So having written her, we just had to cast her. Jenna Coleman (she/her) gave us the Johanna of our dreams – tough, brilliant, tricky, haunted and probably doomed.

Sparky, feisty Johanna Constantine in multiple timelines? She's basically just playing fucking Clara again, isn't she?

[bgmnts]

Wokeman.

[Small Man Big Horse]

There's been an update to the cast list, including Jenna Coleman (!?) as Johanna Constantine, and Kirby Howell-Baptiste (who must have the best agent in the world, because she's in everything) as Death.

Previously announced cast:



Newly announced cast:



I'm generally pretty woke, but pronouns + Netflix makes me worried this might be a bit pandering and unbearable.

Also black Death seems wrong. Her pasty white goth Valley Girl vibe is iconic. Black Morpheus wouldn't faze me, but black Death? C'monnn.

EDIT: per Gaiman:

Sparky, feisty Johanna Constantine in multiple timelines? She's basically just playing fucking Clara again, isn't she?

Ha, just came here to moan about this, I've no issue with it being Johanna Constantine (and liked her in the comics) but hated Coleman's performance in Dcotor Who and if it's anything like that in The Sandman it'll really fuck me off.

[Harvey Milk]

I want to get more excited about it, and I like some of the casting choices, but I'm with Mister Six on this. I get the horrid feeling they're going to lay the politics on real thick to make up for the lack of ambition and talent in the development team.

And, yeah, casting Jenna Coleman as a sassy time-traveller is just taking the mick. Fuck knows why Gaiman actually approves of this.

[El Unicornio, mang]

I liked Coleman in Doctor Who (and some other stuff she's done) so I'm cautiously optimistic given some of the other cast members. It won't be on par with the comics, I'm already accepting that.

[bgmnts]

Fuck knows why Gaiman actually approves of this.

Huge wads of cash maybe?

[chveik]

it will be pure shit i reckon

[mothman]

Kinda feel like Delirium or Destruction might have looked good played by a non-white actor. Hell, any of them would probably. They've noticeably not done it with Dream. But I just LIKE the classic look of Death, so this really annoys me.

[Mister Six]

Seen it pointed out that the pronouns are those of the actors, not the characters, and this is likely an attempt to normalise announcing pronouns, so I retract my complaint on that front.

[jobotic]

Huge wads of cash maybe?

Flying round the world whenever your wife gets on your tits ain't cheap ha ha who's with me

[Small Man Big Horse]

I've been re-reading The Sandman for the first time in thirty odd years, and am close to the end with only three volumes left to go, so I should definitely have finished it by the time the series drops on Netflix.

I have to say I'm not optimistic judging by this trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6pdYkqeT7A - There's a couple of bits which look okay but Jenna Coleman smirking all over the fucking place irritated me no end, I've no issue with a woman playing John Constantine, I just think she's a terrible fit for the role, but maybe I'll be proven wrong.

It all seems a bit action based too and lacks the nuance of the books, but trailers are often awful, so I'm just hoping the show itself won't be as bad.

I'm intrigued as to how they'll pace it too, I'm guessing we'll get a whole hour of Dream being unable to escape his prison until he manages to at the very end, but I hope it doesn't stick to the one issue per episode set up (that admittedly I've made up in my mind) as that would be something of a drag.